Title: Shattered
Author: Katryna Black
Fandom: Labyrinth
Disclaimer: Labyrinth, and anything pertaining to the aforementioned, belongs to its rightful owners.
Personal Disclaimer: Obviously, it would be hypocritical to ask for none of my own to be pilfered and plundered. All I ask is that the plot of this fic and the words from it remains mine.
Author's note: This will be a continuation fic, but being as I've taken on several projects at the same time, I cannot promise a prompt update. But, it does make for a nice one shot, methinks.
Perhaps, in the end, she was always the one meant to fall.
"Sarah," he began, rising from his throne. She thought that he might descend on her, his arms wrapping around her and she finally would find out if that hair of his was as soft as the feathers on his robe.
The floor beneath her feet was clean, the clucking chickens were nowhere to be found, and the once joyous goblins quietly stayed to the shadows. She wasn't sure why, but the observation settled uneasily in her stomach. Maybe, because it wasn't his doing..?
"Why are you here?" he asked, his steps painfully slow, his heels clicking on the marble floor and ringing in her ears.
"You love me," she reminded him, her chin held high but, still she trembled as he came closer.
"'Why did you call for me?" His voice was even, with just a hint of taunting.
"You'd give me anything, the world, the stars, anything I want, you'd give it to me-"
"I loved you," he corrected gently, standing an arm's length from her. He smelled of pure smoke, she wanted it to swallow her whole.
"I would have," he continued, "give you everything, but that was many years ago. That is all past tense now, my Sarah."
"You. Can't. Say. No. To me," she ground out desperately, her voice softer than she had meant it to be. She told herself that his eyes glistened with tears of regret instead of amusement.
"Your words no longer reach me," Jareth said, his lips turned up in an almost smile of victory. "Toby is no longer a baby, I cannot take him-"
"It's you I wish for," she whispered, fully clothed, yet completely naked before him.
"You and I are no longer children, Sarah," he finished. "We cannot always have what we want." He turned from her and began to climb the stairs back to his throne.
He paused. "You may have the sanctuary you desire, although what you ran from all these years resides in these very walls. Take her to the Owl Room." The last comment was made to a tiny goblin, who came forward and beckoned silently for Sarah to follow.
"Sarah," he called out as she turned to leave. "It's time to grow up. I will help you find what you require to do so, but it cannot be me."
She opened her mouth to reply that she didn't need his help, that she had never needed him, not even when she called for him. No sound escaped her lips.
Sarah heard Jareth sink heavily onto his throne before the door closed behind her, but she didn't hear the sudden thud it made, closing her off from him. All she could hear was the ringing in her ears, the off-hand, "My Sarah," that meant nothing to him, but the world to her.